The former UK staff in China and English teacher in China, Barbara Woodward, is expected to become the first female director of the British MI6 in history.

It is reported that the British overseas intelligence agency (MI6) will have a woman sitting in the position of director for the first time in history.

On the 10th, according to reports by The Times and The Independent, Richard Moore (62), who has been director for 5 years, will step down this autumn. Among the three candidates who made it to the final interview as his successor, all are women.

There have been two female directors in the history of the British domestic intelligence agency (MI5), but so far, out of the 17 directors of MI6, none have been female. In the James Bond movie series, Judi Dench's portrayal of M, the MI6 director, was said to be based on Stella Rimmingtan, the first female director of MI5.

Two of the final candidates are internal personnel of MI6, currently serving as intelligence officers, hence their names remain undisclosed. The third candidate is Barbara Woodward, the UK ambassador to the United Nations, who does not have prior experience working in an intelligence agency but is considered the most likely candidate.

Woodward joined the British Foreign Office in 1994 and is currently the highest-ranking female official within the office.

From 2015 to 2020, she served as the International Director of the UK Border Agency and Ambassador to China. She graduated from the University of St Andrews and earned a master's degree in international relations from Yale University in the United States. She also taught English in China.

"MI6 was once famous alongside Israel's Mossad as one of the world's top small-scale intelligence gathering agencies, but now with the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) being able to collect large amounts of intelligence, public opinion is concerned that MI6 is struggling," The Times reported. A former intelligence officer told the media: "MI6 has lost its direction and is becoming a cautious foreign affairs department. They seem to have forgotten that their task is to manage, operate, and recruit intelligence agents. Human intelligence is indispensable, and if this habit disappears, intelligence work will become extremely difficult."

The appointment will ultimately be decided by the Prime Minister Keir Starmer after consulting with a committee composed of senior government officials such as Foreign Secretary David Lammy and National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell.

Source: Chosun Ilbo

Original Article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1832009001937932/

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